07/05/12 07/05/12 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] >> from pacifica, this is "democracy now!" >> the power that accompanies the well, the political power to ensure the system does not create it opportunity but only entrench and shield thrown ill- gotten gain. >> with liberty and justice for some. glenn greenwald on how the law is used to destroy equality and protect the powerful. we will talk about the obama administration's failure to prosecute wall to executives, the future of wikileaks, and the growing surveillance state. but first, amy goodman goes to

spend more protesters are celebrating a major victory after the country's high court opened a criminal investigation into the former head of spain's biggest mortgage lender. a former imf chief rodrigo rato. we speak with organizers of the historic may 15 movement, the indignados. >> maybe, eventually, maybe one of these guys will pay. we have this impression that no one -- they do what they won. they still, like, nothing happens. today, maybe, something will happen. i'm very happy. >> all of that and more coming up. this is "democracy now!," democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm juan gonzalez filling in for amy goodman. nato supply convoys have resumed in pakistan after the u.s.

finally apologized for a deadly attack that occurred last year. pakistan had barred the nato trucks that carry supplies for the afghan war after u.s. forces killed 24 pakistani troops in november. on tuesday, the obama administration dropped its longstanding refusal to apologize, ending a more than seven-month standoff. the pakistani information minister said the apology had met pakistan's demands. >> america has accepted pakistan's principled stand on an apology and has agreed to work in unison with pakistan in the war against terrorism they have declared in the future pakistan's sovereignty will not be compromised. they also reaffirmed the respect pakistan's sovereignty. >> these were pakistan's demands, which have been accepted. >> the first nato trucks entered afghanistan from pakistan earlier today. in washington, state department

spokesperson victoria nuland appeared to downplay the apology, saying both sides had expressed regret for the november incident and the u.s. would be saving money with the supply lines reopens. >> the secretary of defense has spoken to the fact that it was expensive for us during the period when the glocks were closed, one of the -- one of the things that has resulted from this is that we have restored the glocks and we're going to be paying the exact same amount as we were paying before, so we are back to significant savings. as the statement makes clear, there were mistakes made on both sides that led to the tragic loss of life, and we're both sorry for this. >> in afghanistan, several nato troops have been wounded in an attack by an afghan soldier. the gunman opened fire as the troops received medical

treatment in an eastern province. it was the latest in a spate of attacks by afghan servicemembers on nato forces. the head of the united nations observer mission in syria says violence has reached an unprecedented level in the country. earlier today, major-general robert mood again called for a cease-fire to allow hundreds of monitors stationed in syria to resume their work. the chief executive of the banking giant barclays has resigned over a major interest- rate fixing scandal that has already ousted the company's chairman. the bank's ceo bob diamond stepped down just days after barclays was fined $453 million by u.s. and british authorities for manipulating key interest rates. a british probe found barclays conspired to manipulate the london interbank offered rate, o which provides twins of dollars in transactions across the globe. the manipulation meant millions of borrowers paid the wrong

amount on their loans. appearing before a british parliamentary committee, the day after his resignation, diamond called the company's action reprehensible but said top executives had moved swiftly to take action. >> when i read the emails from those traders, i got physically ill. it is reprehensible behavior. if you're asking me should those actions be dealt with, absolutely. >> i think it is a sign of barclays that we're willing to be first, willing to come out with this. >> diamond is the second top barclays executive to depart after chairman marcus agius resigned last week. also speaking at the british parliamentary hearing, liver member of parliament said they had shown negligent behavior. >> [unintelligible] two chief executives has been

doing finally wrong things. it is too frightened to or to disinterested to actually tell the chief executor. that is a very worrying thing to come out in the inquiry. >> the palestinian authority has called for international investigation of the death of yasser arafat's after traces of radioactive material were found on his belongings. an investigation by the news network al jazeera found arafat may have died of poisoning after high levels of polonium were discovered on personal items, including his clothes and toothbrush. arafat died in november 2004 after being flown to france for medical treatment. his widow called on the palestinian authority to allow for her husband's body to be exhumed. >> i want to ask to exhume the body of my husband. as a mother, as a wife, and as a

partner of this great man for 20 years it is my responsibility. this is my message to the authorities that they have to cooperate because the tomb of yasser is in ramallah. >> oblivion government says it has reached a deal with indigenous leaders to hold a referendum on a highway project that's sparked massive protests. thousands of indigenous protesters marched on the capitol last week to oppose the government's plan for the road, which would cut through a national park and indigenous land. similar protests led bolivian president carlos to partly halt construction last year. the bolivian government says the referendum will be held later this month. more than 1 million homes and businesses remain without power in the aftermath of last week's massive storms in the eastern u.s. states from indiana to virginia have seen major power outages after hurricane level winds were

followed by sweltering heat. the strain on the power grid coupled with your fire from scorching temperatures forced the cancellation of scores of fourth of july celebrations across the country. the obama administration has asked the supreme court to settle a long-running dispute over the 1996 defense of marriage act, which bars federal recognition of same-sex couples. five different federal appeals courts have ruled the law and constitutional, despite also opposing the law, the obama administration has continued enforcing it pending a final ruling from the supreme court. republican presidential candidate mitt romney appears to have shifted his stance on obama's landmark healthcare law, echoing party members by calling the mandate requiring people to buy health insurance a tax. romney's remarks come days after his top spokesperson said romney does not believe the mandate is a tax. the supreme court upheld the individual mandate at the core

of obama's health care law last week on the grounds of it being a tax. romney enacted a nearly identical mandate when he was governor of massachusetts. on wednesday, romney marked the fourth of july with an appearance in new hampshire. speaking to supporters, he continued with a campaign theme of linking president obama's policies to european-style social welfare. >> we believe in america. [cheers] we do not want to change america into something it is not. we do not want to make america more like europe or any other place. we want to make america more like america with the conviction that freedom is right, that all people are designed opportunities. >> mean what the white house, president obama spent the fourth of july hosting a celebration and concert for u.s. service members. >> because of your service and sacrifice, all of our troops are

out of iraq. because of your service -- [applause] because of your service and sacrifice, we took the fight to al qaeda and we brought osama bin laden to justice. [applause] because of your service and sacrifice, we're transitioning out of afghanistan. we remain ready for any threat. that is all because of you. >> in a surprise victory for voting rights advocates, michigan's republican governor rick snyder has refused to sign three bills that would have restricted voting rights in the state. one l. goh rejected by snyder would have required voters to show a photo id in order to obtain an absentee ballot wallace that the restrictive voter registration rise. he rejected a bill that would require residents to check off a box on their ballot stating they are u.s. citizens. republican legislators back the laws as part of what critics call a nationwide push to

disenfranchise people of color and other possible democratic voters ahead of the november elections. and those are some of the headlines. this is "democracy now!," democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm juan gonzalez. amy goodman is in madrid, spain, where protesters are celebrating a major victory after the country's high court opened a criminal investigation into the former head of spain's biggest mortgage lender rodrigo rato, the former head of the international monetary fund has been ordered to appear in court to face criminal fraud accusations related to the downfall of bankia, a banking giant that sought tens of billions of dollars in bailout money. the news marks a rare case or former executive is facing a criminal probe related to the global financial crisis. in addition to rodrigo rato, 32 other banking officials and executives have been accused of fraud, price-fixing, and falsifying accounts in a lawsuit brought by one of the country's

smaller political parties. spain's attorney general also announced a probe into bankia last month. the bank's failure led to a government takeover so hundreds of thousands of small investors lost their savings. at a shareholder meeting last week, protesters condemned rodrigo rato who was forced to resign in may. >> when you talked about rodrigo rato, he said he was very professional regarding bankia. i can only asking for one thing as a shareholder -- please, do not be a professional. >> a lot of people are struggling not only with their mortgage, but their savings. this is a frantic fight. no one knows the answer to who or how, that everyone is losing their money. >> for more, we're joined by amy goodman in madrid, spain by "democracy now!" videostream. tell us these latest developments in the unfolding of

bankia scandal. >> this is extremely significant. the people who helped to make this happen, what people were celebrating independence day, the word came down that the head of bankia, which may be responsible for the largest banking fraud scandal in spain's history -- and as you pointed out, the former head of the imf before strauss-kahn. this is a significant figure. he is a close ally of the current prime minister of spain, pey-pey party, a scandal that is rocking the country. but who made this happen to begin with? this is who we will hear from today, members of the equivalent of u.s. occupy movement who got so frustrated with the 1% not being held accountable in light of the numbers of evictions in

this country and the financial crisis that they like, as in the united states, decided to find a lawsuit that ultimately led the attorney general to open this investigation, which is close to an indictment of rodrigo rato. extremely significant just this morning, i was speaking with the former attorney general of spain and said to him, how significant is this? he said, this is just the beginning. so let's first turn to a young man i interviewed yesterday as the news was coming down. his name is olmo gálvez. he is with the m15 movement, stands for may 15, 2011, the the protesters came into the streets in spain. he was profiled when "time" magazine named protester, a person of the year. he is the person they profiled in spain. this is olmo gálvez talking

about the significance of rodrigo rato being called into court, facing criminal charges that could land him in jail for years. and a message to the people in the united states, a real message from the protesters here, the occupy movement here is, this is the kind of action that occupy movement can be involved in around the world that can shake the 1%. this is olmo gálvez. rodrigo rato >> rodrigo rato was of the ruling government in spain. bankia -- he became the head of the imf before strauss-kahn. then when he left the office, he was kind of kick that somehow or at least he laughed, then he came back to spain. pey-pey, the same political party, put him ahead of the

merger of seven banks. they were bankrupt. there were going through strong financial difficulties. they kept moving forward with their agenda. the cut rodrigo rato -- put rodrigo rato to make sure it was when to be a very good conglomerate. one of the things they did, they went public. there is evidence the numbers they showed their investors, which were very small investors -- there were no international investors because no one believed those accounts. they sold their shares to their own depositors in the bank. two years later, they recognize the whole group was bankrupt,

that they had no money. the other thing they did, they were selling it as a deposit, the selling something that is quite complicated called perpetual debt. it is not a deposit. it is capital. they were selling it to people that some of them could not read, some of them had difficulties understanding the product, many were elderly. it was a big scandal that was not in the media. they were not covering it. we were pointing at rodrigo rato st., of course it was not only him. yesterday, rodrigo rato and another 30 people from bankia, and now bankrupt corporation,

said it was being investigated. >> would you say "we" described who you are. >> i normally talk about "we" because this is not something one person is doing. it is a whole movement of people. the action against rodrigo rato, the ex-imf, is out it took part. different lawyers and groups. we thought we could sue rodrigo rato. most people agreed it was a good thing that we should support it. so we did it altogether. >> i do not think people in the rest of the world and the united states understand it was grassroots movements, the activists that actually the ought rodrigo rato indicted today. >> yes.

bachelet, not today. today was institutions. the public general attorney -- >> the attorney general. >> he started investigating rodrigo rato. it was one day after we had the legal suit. a >> one day after you sued him. >> yes. >> what do you mean? crowd funding platform? >> yes. we needed about 15,000 euros for the lawyers who are working pro bono, but they still needed expenses to do that. it is a very expensive trial. in order to get the money, what we did was open a crowd funding

platform and asked everyone four little amount of money. 5 euros, 20 euros, 30 years. and less than 24 hours, we were able to raise the money. >> how much were you able to raise? >> i think about 15,000 years. all of the accounts are on disclosure. you can see where the expenditures are going and everything. so it is part of the collective movement, the collective action. >> that is about 20,000 u.s. dollars to raise. >> that was olmo gálvez, an organizer with the real democracy now, democracia real ya, part of the may 15 movement in madrid. we will return to amy goodman in spain in a moment. stay with us. ♪ [music break] ♪ [music break]

♪ [music break] >> this is "democracy now!," democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm juan gonzalez. as news broke yesterday at the spanish courts investigation into bankia's former chief, rumors flew that rodrigo rato and his former colleagues had been indicted. that has yet to happen. we will continue on that, that we have to take the music prefer a moment. thank you. ♪ [music break] ♪ [music break]

>> this is "democracy now!," democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm juan gonzalez. my apologies for that mess up their pri with our connection with spain, we had some technical difficulties. as news broke yesterday of the spanish courts investigation into the former chief, rumors flew rodrigo rato and his former colleagues had been indicted. that is yet to happen. but he and his associates could potentially face up to six years in prison. thursday, amy goodman interviewed stéphane grueso, an actress and film actor making a documentary about the may 15 movement in spain. >> we are in madrid, spain or a movement similar to what happened in the united states, the occupy movement, -- well, actually began a bit before called the m15 for may 15, 2011. we are speaking to stéphane grueso who is a filmmaker who has been documenting the m15 movement.

stéphane, if you begin by talking about just what m15 is. >> m15 is the date when we went to the streets. it is may 15, 2011. it is the day we made the demonstration in the streets and the day we started camping in madrid. it was a couple of months before the occupy wall street. >> what were the demands? why did people gather? >> we were a bunch of different people. we did not have any kind of concrete demands, we were just angry people. we did not like what we were seeing, where we were going. we felt we were losing our democracy, our country, our way of life. so we joined with different people with different interests. we had one slogan -- democracy now real, just like your program rid we did not have any concrete demands. it was just like coming together

and see what happens. >> what happened? >> we stayed in the streets. 50 people stayed overnight in the square. the police tried to take them out, so we came back. we began to multiplied and other citizens in spain. and three or four days' time, we were like tens of thousands of people -- i don't know, and dozens of cities in spain, camped in the middle of the cities. a little bit like you see in tahrir and egypt. >> they were calling for the end of the mubarak dictatorship. once he had so many people, what was the demand? >> we tried to make a short list of demands we all agreed we could make. we were so different. there were the top five of our demands. we wanted to change our

electoral law. when you vote in spain, there is a system that no other party, the two big ones, is able to go into government. so we wanted to change the electoral system and use another one. we wanted to separate the powers. in the constitution that says you have the three powers. we wanted them to be really separated. we wanted independent judicial powers. this kind of thing. we wanted to expel the corruption from the public life. there were like a dozen congressmen that are implicated in corruption cases, and they're still in parliament. we did not want this. we wanted transparency. now we have a new law, which is not good, but we did not have any kind of transparency law. we wanted to know what the were doing with our money. >> how did the media cover the

m15 movement? >> how do you call it? the first big front-page, a big page, on "the washington post." the newspapers in spain, first of all, they did not understand what happened. we did not know what was gone -- they did not know what was going on. but they were ignoring us. it was like five days before the election in spain and we were not in the press. then they began to live. they were saying we were violent. there were saying that we were young, extreme left wing. that is not true. we made our own media. >> how? >> we have a program in madrid. we have a television and newspaper that we print 45,000 copies each month.

we are a bunch of people that came together. we are a lot of professionals, journalists, people that can do things. we decided to do our news. what we saw was not relative, so we decided to do it ourselves. >> when you say it was not just a small group of progressive left-wing people, who did it start to include more of? >> the traditional activists were there, but there were a lot of new people like myself i do not have a history of activism before. before may 15, 2011, i started to do things because i was fed up. but there were new people in the streets meeting to gather. it was very nice. we did not have all these things you carry with you when you belong to an organization. there are good and bad things,

but we were all new. it was very nice. these guys took part, the traditional activists, but then they left. they left or they stayed, but they did not try, you know, i do not know how to say it in english. they did not try to come ford or to be more present like the others. it was an organization of new people and it was very nice and a lot of people like it. i loved it. it was a good experience for me. >> talk about how technology aided duke in the organizing. >> the 15 m movement -- >> where to get the name indignados? >> it means angry one. that was the name they gave us. >> so you did not give it to

yourself? >> no, we are people. we're not a party, not a union, not an association, not indignados -- we are people. but they gave us the name and indignados is what we are known with this name. >> and so how you organized technology? >> the people that come from the free culture movement and the party had a technology basis. there were already fighting over the internet. they knew the internet. so when this all began, the very first night the twitter account, which is the main madrid twitter account that has 70,000 followers -- >> in the main plaza?

>> yes. three guys in the night said, let's do something. it began to spread. we know the networks, we know how the internet works. it was a successful story how we used technology. we have our websites, with thousands of visits, but hundreds of thousands more like the newspaper. we have these powers. >> how did it start that night? how many people were hitting it? >> there were like 40 people who stayed the first nine. they began to say, we have to [unintelligible] no one came. these 40 people for the first night. the second night, there were like 200. the police came and took them away. when i read it on twitter that

the police took the people away, we said, ok, let's go to the square. like 10,000 people came to the square and we began to build our small city. i remember watching a sofa flying over the people. >> one what? >> you know, like a couch. >> what you mean, a couch flying over the square? >> people work caring the couch. and a couple of days, we build our city. the police and government did not know what to do. it was like five days before the election. we were absolutely nonviolent. it was difficult for them as well. they did not know how to act regarding everything. it is a big success. i am very happy. >> so that is may 15, 2011.

the prime minister, socialist prime minister assumed forced out. you have a right wing government now. where is the m15 movement? you said people are just quietly building. how? we are everywhere. we are not in the squares. we're not camped, so we're not visible. but in madrid, every weekend i think there are like 104 assemblies in the neighborhood. and each one of these assemblies -- they come from 5 to 50 people. they join and talk about politics, making a difference in the world and small politics, like our neighborhood. this happens every week and that is 15m. we will meet. every week i have three or four assemblies and reunions every week. over the internet, we're all

connected with other cities. we're not so visible now, but we are still working and we will go to the streets again. >> the evictions? >> it is amazing. sometimes i go to try to help mining people in the neighborhood-- to help my people in the neighborhood they say, you do nothing with 15m, you will assemblies, but do not do anything. but everyone in spain knows what an eviction is, that this is a problem. there were people who were fighting against these evictions, but we took this as ours. we came with them. and now the m15 movement is like trying to fight against these elections. it happens when the fepeople cannot pay for their homes, they will get these evictions.

in spain, it is not like in the u.s. when you get out of your home, you lose your home, that you have to pay the rest. you have like a huge debt for the rest of your life. we're doing like an emergency. where they do not get the people out of the houses. we will go to the door of the house and tried to make some civil resistance. >> rodrigo rato who headed bankia, it is bankia evicting many people, right? >> 80% of the evictions in madrid are from bankia. the state bought bankia. now is up the state. that means these evictions will be tomorrow -- >> you are evicting them? >> we spaniards are now the owners of these homes. we are evicting our own people? come on. >> what does it mean to say that rodrigo rato is indicted?

>> finally, it happens that maybe eventually one of these guys may be is going to pay. because we citizens have this impression that no one of these guys has any problem. never. they do what they want. they still, like, nothing happens. maybe something is starting to happen, so i am very, very happy. >> that was stéphane grueso, an activist and filmmaker in spain rodrigo rato is facing a criminal investigation after the falling of bankia. we will be back in a moment with glenn greenwald. ♪ [music break] ♪ [music break]

>> this is "democracy now!," democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm juan gonzalez. as the 2012 presidential election season heats up, new campaign finance figures reveal wall street is heavily investing in president obama.

according to the nonpartisan center for responsive politics, the democratic national committee and obama have together raised more than $14 million from the securities and investment industry -- compared to nearly $9.5 million contributed to his republican rival mitt romney. this makes wall street the third most generous industry donating to obama's reelection efforts. the news comes amidst ongoing investigations by the justice department into massive financial fraud by some of the nation's largest banks. yet for years after the 2000 economic crisis, not a single top wall street executive has gone to jail. well, to look at how the politically powerful enjoy virtual immunity from the consequences of even the most egregious crimes, we're joined in new york by glenn greenwald, familiar to all "democracy now!" there's an lister's. he's a constitutional law attorney and political and legal blogger for salon.com read he writes about wall street's

impunity in his book, "with liberty and justice for some: how the law is used to destroy equality and protect the powerful." it was released in paperback this week. welcome back to "democracy now!" before we go to the bankers, it is the 10th anniversary of president bush's signing of the patriot act. and your book comes out this week as well talk about what the patriot act has done. >> this is the most remarkable thing about the patriot act to me, when it was first enacted it was the immediate aftermath of 9/11. even with the fear and hysteria prevailing in the country at the time, the patriot act was consider remarkably controversial -- even for that time frame whe. they're all sort editorials talking about warnings and

concerns about how pervasive the surveillance would become, how to be conducted without oversight. it was a controversial issue. the fears of 9/11 and terrorism were being exploited. fast for 10 years, we have not had a successful terrorist attack on american soil, and at the patriot act is complete and controversial. it gets renewed every four years. the warnings and concerns of 9/11 were strong that in some provision saying, we don't want this to be a permanent affair. it now gets renewed with no debate. the votes for something like 89- 10 in the senate to renew it with no reforms, even though there is mass of evidence of systemic abuse. the democrats and republicans both renew it when they control congress. obama's in ministration to manage it be approved without any -- and ministration demanded

it be read approved without any changes. i think that is the disturbing lesson about the patriot act. >> we have been talking with amy goodman about the situation in spain with bankia, looks like it is becoming a combination of countrywide and bank of america rolled into one in terms of its responsibility and the mortgage crisis in spain as well. i want to read through some of the recent settlements that some banks in the united states and other parts of the world, barclays. less than a week paid to $450 million to settle accusations that tried to manipulate key interest rates. goldman sachs agreed to pay $550 million to settle charges of securities fraud. one of the largest penalties against a wall street firm by the securities and exchange commission.

june 2011, bank of america announced it would pay $8.5 billion and set aside an additional $5.5 billion to settle claims by investors who bought toxic mortgages from the banking giant. one after another, these banking companies and wall street companies keep paying, apparently huge fines, but no one goes to jail. no one is prosecuted criminally for these actions. >> i think it is important to realize although these figures down large in one sense -- $200 million in such a lot of money, $500 million seems like too large amount of money. but in the scheme of the amounts these banks are making, there just blips on the balance sheets. they seem to write these off as a cost of doing business, or it really, during a cost of fraud. the amount of money they have made out ways the amount their pain in fines for some funds are

more significant than that. but even so, these banks are still extraordinarily profitable. they're making more money in some cases the in part to the 2008 crisis. when you look at with the institutional incentives are for executives, is still much to take these huge risks and gamble, as we saw with jpmorgan , and might be $9 billion trading losses that were undetected by regulators. the reason is, what is supposed to deter troops to cadiz fraud is not that these banks may end up paying fines institutionally -- because it does not provide enough incentive, obviously, but what is really supposed to deter systemic violations of securities laws is the fact there criminal offenses. congressman them into felonies in the wake of the great depression, yet there has been

zero accountability from the financial crisis. that is the reason the behavior continues. the executives knew they could take these risks and break laws and pay no real price, and that is what happened. it is not just a travesty of justice for not condemning them for the past, but they do not have any fear of criminal accountability when they commit these obvious crimes. >> i want to play a comment by president obama on why his administration has not prosecuted any senior financial executives, speaking at a white house press conference in october last year. >> well, first on the issue of prosecutions on wall street. one of the biggest problems about the collapse of lehman and his subsequent financial crisis and the whole subprime lending fiasco, is that a lot of that

stuff was not necessarily illegal, it was just immoral or inappropriate or reckless. that exactly why we need to pass dodd-frank, to prohibit some of these practices. the financial sector is very creative and always looking for ways to make money. that is their job. if there are loopholes and rules that can be bent and arbitrage to be had, they will take advantage of it. without commenting on particular prosecutions -- obviously, that is not my job but that of the attorney general -- i think part of people's frustrations, part of my frustration was a lot of practices that should not have been allowed or not necessarily against the law, but they have a huge destructive impact. >> president obama on why his

administration has not prosecuted any senior financial executives. your response? >> that answer is incredibly deceitful and misleading in several important respects. first of all, the massive of the regulation that took place that will shrink too many things that for years have been criminal, published about wall street to do many things that for years have been crummel, was led by people like larry summers and the whole accolades of robert rubin and timothy geithner who ended up being empowered by president obama at the highest level of economic policy teams. this idea he is somehow disserved by or in opposition to the kind of deregulation that made this criminal is misleading given those are the people continue to run his ministrations. you notice he said "some of this behavior" was not criminal. the unspoken implication is much

of it was criminal. i just didn't interview with the eliot spitzer, of course, probably the only elected official in the last two or three decades to put serious fear in the hearts of wall street. i said as part of the interview, i know there's this notion that prosecutions might be difficult of wall street executives but that is not a reason to refrain from doing them he objected and said, you know what prosecutions would not be difficult. we have emails from wall street executives were there internally mocking the assets there representing to the public, mocking them as garbage and junk. they knew they were committing fraud. credit agencies were shielding these assets, knowing they were junk. the third issue was, it is not my job to comment. that is ironic given president obama expressly argued and instructed the justice department not to prosecute bush officials for the crimes that

were done as part of the war on terror. his band, it's about bradley manning's prosecution, decreed him public. when it comes to wall street executives who founded his 2008 campaign and are currently finding his campaign, he becomes shy and reticent. he is the leader of the party, the leader of the country. the fact we of not prosecuted these executives is a national disgrace. you see in spain, some effort to move away from that. it is his responsibility to demand justice be applied equally. he vowed in the first paragraph of his announcement, the era of scooter the the justice would be over. that means if you are sufficiently powerful, you do not pay for your crimes. that is the promise he made when he ran and has failed to fulfil. >> i want to ask you the latest on wikileaks. the organization announced today was going to release the syria

files, more than 2 million emails from syrian political figures, ministries, and associated companies dating from august 2006 until march 2012. founder julian assange has spent the last two weeks inside the ecuadorian embassy in london in an attempt to avoid being extradited to sweden. last week, susan benn of the julian assange defence fund said assange will remain inside the ecuadorian embassy was application for asylum is processed. >> yesterday, mr. assange was served with a letter from the metropolitan police service requesting he surrender himself at 11:30 this morning. mr. assange has been advised that he should decline to comply with the police request. this should not be considered any sign of disrespect. under both international and domestic u.k. law, a silent

assessments take priority over extradition claims. >> glenn greenwald, your comments on these developments? >> as far as the current situation of assange is concerned, i think everyone agrees the allegations in sweden are unproven, are serious ones, and deserve to be taken seriously. and the help of everybody is he will be able to go there and vindicate his claims of innocence or have a judicial process and ultimately to adjudicate and. the problem is, the u.s. has given every indication it is actively seeking to prosecute him. there is some evidence there is already a sealed indictment. there is definite proof there is an active grand jury. dianne feinstein yet again called for the prosecution of wikileaks under the espionage statute.

the concern going to sweden will enable the u.s. much easily to extradite him to the u.s. and charges of crimes for which would end up in prison for life if convicted under very oppressive conditions. sweden is a small country. those of us who defend and support wikileaks have said angelina assange ultimately saddam self, the solution is simple. half the u.s. and sweden agree his going to sweden will not result in his extradition to the u.s.. and within the next five minutes to go to stockholm to confront these charges. it is never been about invading the allegations, but not letting the u.s. engineer his extradition for things that are plainly not -- things that the media outlets to every day. i have not seen the emails because the news of this broke

as we were beginning the show. it simply underscores the reason wikileaks is so valuable. the ability to blow holes in walls of secrecy behind which the world's most powerful actors function is something that newspapers have a great deal of difficulty doing, because they're subject to a loss of their state or cannot karen anonymity because reporters know who their sources are and can ultimately be forced to give them up. >> reporters often depend on those very people in power for a lot of the information they get >> absolutely. one of the first things in new york times does is ask the government what they should be allowed to publish and should not initially they end up complying, as they did when they learned the bush administration was secretly spying on americans. they learn that in mid 2004. but because there were pressured to sit on that, they sat on it

for year-and-a-half until bush was safely reelected. they read that large amounts of affirmation and wikileaks does not. it is crucial for transparency. what i can see is this the implicates both the al-assad regime and opponents of syria about which reporting has been very incomplete. whichever side you're on in the syrian debate, you should want more information and transparency. yet again, wikileaks has done what other media outlets cannot or will not do, which is shine a light in the dark. >> i want to ask you about supreme court decisions. it was a big week last week for the country. the supreme court decision on the arizona law as well as the health care law. much has been ordered about judge roberts, defecting from his conservative group of justices and both of these, and at least partially on both of

these laws come up holding the position of many liberals and progressives. your assessment of the decisions and the role judge roberts played in these? >> i think the immigration decision has been misunderstood more so than the other important cases like the campaign finance and health care cases, which have received a fair amount of attention. i think the obama at the ministration deserves credit for attempting to have the enforcement of that law and joined. the problem is, although it was panned as a victory, the most significant one, "show your papers could go provision compels police officer and arizona to demand emigration papers and prove of emigration rights be shown by anyone they decide they want to demand an of, was up held. it was upheld on the proviso if arizona ax and a discriminatory

manner it will be revisited, but there is no way -- it is inherently discriminating. while the obama in ministration deserves credit for having brought that suit, the crucial part of why the case -- why it ended up being protected is the only issue the obama administration raised to challenge these provisions was that it was conflicting with federal law and the federal government has a primacy in these areas. >> so chose not to argue. >> right. they did not say it was violating rights because it was discriminatory. i think the real reason is that the obama administration has been extremely aggressive in supporting people who are undocumented. they have programs or the deputize local sheriff's departments and essentially encourage them to engage in this

very behavior. that was ultimately what arizona ended up saying and what nine justices of the supreme court, including sonny sotomayor, ended up agreeing. -- sonia sotomayor ended up agreeing. often demanding -- if you talk to advocates on the ground in arizona, they will take the court decision has left the latino community insubstantial fear this provision can continue to be enforced. as far as the broader question about justice roberts, i think the issue has really been that the supreme court is in real danger of losing legitimacy, not just with the right, but now with the left. i think it was crucial the court demonstrate that not every decision gets decided among strictly partisan lines.

i think he felt it was his particular duty to save the court's reputation. >> you have been speaking around the country on your book coming out in paperback, "with liberty and justice for some: how the law is used to destroy equality and protect the powerful." what has been the reaction talking about the inequality of the core systems? >> aside from the fact 500 or 600 people to talk about the book, which is not the typical reaction, i think the reason is if you look at the protest movement, at the core of it was the idea that the system politically and legally is completely skewed for those for most powerful. >> that does it for today's program. glenn greenwald, political and legal blogger for salon.com but his latest book is, "with liberty and justice for some: how the law is used to destroy equality and protect the powerful." one correction, the patriot act was signed into law october 26,

2001. thank you for joining us. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]